In a letter to the members of Hartford’s City Council, Calixto Torres says that he will finish out his term as Council President, even though some of his colleagues are asking him to resign from that position.

When new in town, it can be difficult for some people to adjust or get involved in their new community. I have never been welcomed with a plate of cookies, but I’ve never felt like a stranger either. Even when I moved away from home for the first time, I made it a point to wander, mostly on foot, to learn about what was around me. Doing this I found a train bridge, a food co-op, and a little coffee shop with the best vegan carrot cake I have ever eaten in my life. In that little city, I also saw homeless people, youth tripping on acid by the river, and was threatened with a gun by a man in his boxer shorts because he assumed that I was going to ditch a shopping cart on his front lawn.(more…)

Heather Brandon has a thorough report about the arrest and Mayor Perez’s press conference this afternoon on her blog, Urban Compass. If you’re looking for information that’s not grossly hyperbolic or sensationalized, check out her article.

In the spot where Bistro 942 stayed open for less than a year, and where Euro Cafe flailed before that, another establishment is going to try its luck. Bocca Rossa, a wine bar and lounge, will be wedged in the space between Dunkin Donuts and City Steam Brewery. Although Rosco’s on nearby Temple Street did not fare well, new restaurants continue to pop up in this section of Downtown.
The sign promises that the restaurant will be coming soon, but does not specify a date. I’m waiting for Kyto, a sushi restaurant on the corner of Pratt and Main, to open. That was supposed to happen over a year ago, and it appears to be under construction, still.

Starting at 3pm Wednesday and ending at 2am on Thursday, there is a parking ban in Hartford. Any cars found parked on the streets during this time are begging to be tagged and towed. Motorists can leave their vehicles in Board of Ed and Public School lots until the ban is lifted. The times of this may change depending on the intensity of the expected snowstorm.

The Courant reports that the mayor will be turning himself in tomorrow morning for bribery. Perez is quoted as saying:

At the end of the day, a lapse in judgment is not a crime.

Perhaps it would have been more accurate for him to say that a lapse in judgment does not always result in committing a crime.

That’s all that I need to say about that. If you want to witness lots of kicking while he’s down, reroute yourself to the Topix boards over at the Courant website. They may lock the ones for this article, but surely comments on the story will pop up on unrelated news items.

Art by Howard Rackliffe and Jonathan Scoville will be on display at La Motta Fine Art (11 Whitney Street) from January 28th through February 28th. The opening reception is from 6-8pm on Friday, January 30th.

Hartford.com, which had stagnated for a few years in the godawful land of gaudy color schemes, poor graphic design, and the major website killer–outdated information–just relaunched. While I’d argue that Kevin Smith is definitely not, as they claim, the “awesomest thing ever” (adolescent humor, anyone?), the site seems useful overall. You can see an interview with another Hartford blogger on the site. Now let’s hope they maintain it, and continue to emphasize the neighborhoods (and not just downtown).